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Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso is under increasing pressure after a tough start to life back in the Spanish capital, with reports going so far as to claim the Los Blancos boss could be sacked if his side lose to Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday night. But is dismissing the former Madrid midfielder the right decision?

Alonso at risk of early dismissal

According to reports, the hierarchy at Madrid have held a meeting over the future of their head coach and offered no guarantees that Alonso will remain in the job if the club's form does not improve. The Spanish giants have forfeited their lead at the top of La Liga, and now sit four points behind champions Barcelona. That is despite beating the Blaugrana 2-1 in the first El Clasico of the season back in October. With the pressure now ramped up, Alonso faces arguably his toughest test yet – Pep Guardiola. 

The City boss is certainly not going to take it easy on his fellow countryman, and he refused to be drawn into speculation about his future. Guardiola said: "I wish Xabi all the best, but his future is an answer I don't know. You all know the situation better than I do; I'm far removed from it. I haven't spoken with Florentino, and he hasn't told me that tomorrow will be Xabi's last match. If you don't win big games, things get difficult. But Xabi is in control of the situation and knows what this whole thing is about. My concern is seeing what we've done well. To beat Real Madrid in this competition, it's not enough to be better; you have to be much better."

AdvertisementGetty Images SportMadrid must ease expectations

Alonso has a proven track record. He led Bayer Leverkusen to their first-ever Bundesliga title and their biggest success since claiming the 1993 German Cup. The 44-year-old then had the whole of Europe at his doorstep, begging him to join, but he chose Madrid, the club he represented 158 times during his career. There is no doubt that he is a world-class coach, and it would benefit Los Blancos to loosen the weight of expectation during his first term as manager. Understandably, it is not always that simple in Madrid, and failure is very rarely rewarded; however, despite their run of just one win in their last five games in La Liga, four points is not an insurmountable deficit to overturn in the second half of the season, and the club are better off putting their trust in Alonso, rather than ripping his project up and starting again.

Alonso's toughest task: Managing a team of superstars

One of Alonso's biggest threats is managing the ego-driven squad Madrid currently possesses. Sometimes, too many big personalities can cause more harm than good, and given time, the Spaniard can drive out the unwanted crop and replace them with players he knows will thrive in his system. Fans have already seen him clash with Vinicius Junior, but Alonso must also contend with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham and Endrick. Three of the five mentioned have been linked with moves away from Madrid; perhaps that is the action needed to give the manager a stronger grip over his team.

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Getty ImagesPatience will be rewarded

Arsenal are the ultimate example of a club who are being rewarded for their patience and trust in the process. Madrid are not exactly battling relegation, although you could argue that with the quality of their team, challenging on all fronts is the bare minimum. After a few short months, it is incredibly hard to gauge an idea of how well things are going under new leadership, especially when that person is taking over from Carlo Ancelotti, a man who was given four years to deliver, and did not always manage it. If Madrid fans can take anything away from the opening months of the 2025-26 campaign, let it be the big wins rather than the losses. Victories over Barcelona and Juventus are clear indicators of what the team can be; it might just require a bit of patience in the short-term.

What do you think? Should Madrid sack Alonso if they lose to Madrid in Wednesday night's blockbuster Champions League clash? Cast your vote in the poll below!

Chelsea’s opening goal in the 1-1 draw against Arsenal on Sunday should have been disallowed under IFAB Law 11.

Arsenal unable to take all three points against ten-man Chelsea

With Moises Caicedo being shown a straight red card after fouling Mikel Merino in the first half, the Gunners would’ve been expecting to pick up what could be a crucial three points at Stamford Bridge, but the hosts refused to lie down.

In fact, Trevoh Chalobah opened the scoring for Enzo Maresca’s side just after half-time, although the north Londoners were ultimately able to come away with a point, as Mikel Merino was able to level things up just over ten minutes later.

Speaking after the game, Maresca made it clear he had no problem with Caicedo being given his marching orders, although he did question why Tottenham Hotspur’s Rodrigo Bentancur was not sent off for a similar challenge last month.

However, Mikel Arteta may have complaints of his own, with VAR being accused of going “completely blind” and missing Enzo Fernandez in an offside position during Chalobah’s opening goal.

IFAB’s Law 11 describes offside offences, and Fernandez’s position battling against Cristhian Mosquera certainly meets the criteria for ‘interfering with an opponent’.

A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played or touched* by a team-mate is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by:

interfering with play by playing or touching a ball passed or touched by a team-mate or interfering with an opponent by: preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or challenging an opponent for the ball or clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when this action impacts on an opponent or making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball

However, the goal stood and Maresca’s side managed to hold out for a draw, despite having ten men for most of the game, so Arteta arguably has a right to feel aggrieved the Gunners were unable to extend their lead at the top.

Arsenal should have taken three points regardless

Although there is a case to be made that Chalobah’s goal should’ve been ruled out, Arsenal will be kicking themselves, given that Caicedo’s early red card presented them with a golden opportunity to pick up a victory.

Arteta concurs that it was two points dropped, saying after the game: “I think overall it’s been a really positive week because the difficulty was immense.

“But I have this flavour that today we should have and we could have won the game and we haven’t. That’s a learning point from it.”

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Arsenal were not at their free-flowing best as they drew with Chelsea.

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That said, the north Londoners shouldn’t be too disheartened, as getting a point at Stamford Bridge is still a good result, and they have a healthy lead at the top of the Premier League table, currently sitting five points clear of Man City.

Zimbabwe’s collapse from a rollicking 91 for 1 left them with a below-par total

Andrew Fidel Fernando18-Nov-2025Zimbabwe lost seven wickets for 37 runs to slip to 147 for 8, when a total greater than 180 had been on the cards. Still, they pushed Pakistan’s chase into the final over, their seamers striking three times in the powerplay to slow Pakistan’s advance, before also squeezing the hosts in the middle overs.Pakistan’s Nos. 5, 6, and 7, however, dug them out of the hole. Playing his comeback T20I innings, Fakhar Zaman hit 44 off 32, putting on a 61-run partnership with Usman Khan. Usman was then joined by Mohammad Nawaz, who had earlier been the best of Pakistan’s bowlers. The required rate had become something of a challenge at this stage, but Nawaz’s 20 off 12 balls ensured victory was ultimately comfortable.Had Brian Bennett held a straight-forward chance off Nawaz on the midwicket boundary, with 15 needed off 10, Zimbabwe could have mounted a sterner challenge at the business end. In the end, Nawaz struck the winning boundary with four balls to spare.Zimbabwe veteran Graeme Cremer, playing his first T20I in over seven years and after 122 matches – the latter, a record – conceded 27 runs in three overs for one wicket.Nawaz triggers Zimbabwe’s tailspinAfter seven overs, Zimbabwe were running the show. The openers had hit 11 fours and a six between them. The run rate was in touching distance of 10. And the first two overs of spin had conceded 26 runs. But Nawaz, bowling quicker and more accurately than the legspinners, made the breakthrough that soon brought a flood of wickets when he had Tadiwanashe Marumani caught at deep square leg, though that first wicket came off a full toss. Later, he would also have Ryan Burl holing out.It was Nawaz’ economy, though, that set him apart. He conceded only 22 form his four overs, and had by far the lowest economy rate (5.50) of any bowler to bowl four overs in the game. With the bat, he was fortunate to be reprieved on nine, but struck a six and two fours to ensure Pakistan didn’t flounder at the finish.The Zimbabwe collapseThe period in which Zimbabwe crashed hardest was through the middle of their innings, when they slipped from 91 for 1 in the 11th over, to 128 for 8 in the 19th. Pakistan’s spinners bossed this period, with Saim Ayub and Abrar Ahmed also picking up key wickets. Although there was not much turn off the surface, the legspinners frequently beat batters in the flight, and created pressure through dot balls. It is this pressure that also caused two Zimbabwe run-outs.In the eight-over stretch between the 11th and 19th overs, Pakistan conceded only 30. It took an unbeaten 34 from Sikandar Raza 34 off 24 balls to avert complete disaster.Zimbabwe seamers boss the powerplayEarly wickets are crucial when defending a modest score, and that’s exactly what Zimbabwe got, when Brad Evans removed both Sahibzada Farhan and Babar Azam in the fifth over, before Tinotenda Maposa trapped Salman Agha in the sixth over. At the end of the powerplay, Pakistan were 31 for 3.They would struggle through the next four overs too, and when Ayub was dismissed by Cremer’s legspin in the 10th over, the required-rate was up to nine, and Zimbabwe looked like defending their total. But a sensible stand between Zaman and Usman gave the Pakistan chase some substance and Nawaz finished the job.

The India keeper-batter has learned to modulate her batting by playing at different positions in the order, and her style is maturing

S Sudarshanan26-Sep-2025″?”Richa Ghosh laughs at the end of our phone call. From the time she entered the sport as a teenager, her hair has been short. But over the past year or so, she has grown it long and so she asks in jest, if it looks all right. Her go-to attire used to generally be jeans with a shirt or T-shirt, but now she is experimenting with different clothing styles, and she feels long hair goes well with most.It’s not just her hair that has undergone a transformation. She has also made numerous tweaks to her batting style to suit India’s needs and to grow into a reliable finisher. Her initiation into the sport was as a top-order batter who could keep wicket. For Bengal, she largely played in the middle and lower-middle orders as a 16-year-old, even chipping in with seam bowling because the side had more established wicketkeepers. When she made her India debut, it was again in the middle order, but with an increased focus on wicketkeeping.After Amol Muzumdar took charge as India’s head coach in December 2023, he experimented with Ghosh as a top-order batter in ODIs – she batted four times at No. 3 and opened the innings twice. However, heading into the 2025 ODI World Cup at home, India have decided they are better off having her bat at No. 6, as a finisher.”When I was small, I used to love hitting sixes,” she says. “But it was not as if I did not know to bat in any other way.” Batting in the middle order for India made her realise she could play the finisher’s role and also the hitter’s.Related

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In only 43 ODIs, Ghosh is already India’s third-highest six-hitter, with 24; only Smriti Mandhana (65) and Harmanpreet Kaur (54) have more, but they have played 108 and 152 matches respectively. Since Ghosh’s ODI debut in September 2021, only Mandhana (37), Chamari Athapaththu (34) and Chloe Tryon (26) have hit more sixes. In her sixth ODI, Ghosh scored India’s fastest fifty in the format, off 26 balls. Her game, though, is not just about hitting sixes.”When I started playing ODIs, it was a lot different. I was getting out [looking] to play big shots, so I started thinking of what I needed to do. If I wanted to make my team win by taking the game till the end, only sixes won’t help; I had to play grounded strokes as well as rotate the strike.”I started having conversations with Amol sir and my coaches in Bengal. I worked hard on playing spinners and tackling pacers. And playing Test cricket helped me change my technique. That helped me pace my ODI batting better.”The WPL has given Ghosh the perfect platform to hone her finishing skills. In the opening game of WPL 2025, Royal Challengers Bengaluru were chasing 202 against Gujarat Giants and Ghosh walked in when they needed more than half those runs off 54 balls. Ellyse Perry was out soon after, but Ghosh went on to score 64 not out off 27 balls, which included a stunning 23-run over assault on Ashleigh Gardner, to complete the WPL’s highest successful chase.Ghosh’s 64 not out off 27 balls in RCB’s record chase in the 2025 WPL contained seven fours and four sixes•BCCIOnly Shafali Verma, with a strike rate of 162.59 makes her runs quicker than Ghosh, who goes at 150.96 in the WPL, among those who have scored at least 600 runs. While Verma has played in the top order, Ghosh has never batted above No. 4 in the competition.What is Ghosh’s secret sauce for batting under pressure?”You need to know what the bowler is bowling, or what she can bowl, firstly. If you don’t know what that bowler wants to do even after looking at the field set, you will panic about playing a shot.”You have to keep two options ready. If she bowls [a particular] delivery: which shot is open for me? I look at the ball and hit, [simple as that]. I don’t think too much. These things happen in the back of my mind, but my mantra is: see the ball and play it. Just watch every ball and face it.”Two key aspects of her personality help her thrive under pressure.”I am a quiet person, but I don’t know if I am calm on the ground. Sometimes the match situation does affect you, but I try and not let it affect me a lot, and stay calm. Aggression is also my plus point – it is not that only calmness is my plus point. If a wicketkeeper or a fielder is constantly in my ears, I enjoy it. In fact, when they keep sledging, I enjoy it more, because it is irritating them. Nothing happens to me. It is not that I don’t talk back – I do. But I enjoy both, silence as well as aggression.”Ghosh celebrates with the 2023 Under-19 World Cup trophy•Matthew Lewis/ICC/Getty ImagesGhosh is already a World Cup winner with India’s Under-19 side but now she wants the “asli wala” [real deal].”The feeling of winning a senior World Cup will be different. I have seen Australia lifting the trophy so many times, New Zealand won it last year in T20. I want to have the feeling of lifting this World Cup. It feels bigger and special because we are playing at home.”When we won the U-19 World Cup, it was like we brought something for India. When you play for your country and win a trophy, it is a special feeling. All fans follow the game and want us to win, and when that happens, it is a festive feeling – [but] very different from Diwali or anything. It is like doing something for others’ happiness.”India have rarely had a dynamic wicketkeeper who bats in the middle order. That is why Ghosh’s role is unlike any in Indian women’s cricket. For India to win their first senior World Cup, a lot hinges on not only how Mandhana and Harmanpreet perform – as the three-match series against Australia earlier this month showed – but also on how Ghosh, who will be 22 by the time the tournament gets underway, does with bat and gloves.